According to media reports Chery is planning to work on a series of Wankel engines for its next generation of new energy vehicles. The Wankel engine is based on a rotary system, rather than the up and down motion of pistons, to generate power for the drive shaft and ultimately the driving wheels. The company most famous for utilizing the Wankel engine is Mazda, who put the design into full use within the RX8 sports car, it appears that Chery are ready to take the Wankel engine to the new energy era.

Chery are hoping to use a miniature 800cc Wankel engine within a small car series that will deliver enough power to charge the batteries that will power an electric motor to deliver power to the wheels, similar in design to Chevrolet’s Volt model. Pictures of what appears to be a small displacement Wankel engine was leaked to the internet earlier today

According to information from various sources, the Wankel engines have already been fitted to pure electric QQ3′s and are able to travel a distance of 120-150km per trip, but wit h the addition of the Wankel engine the QQ’s are able to gain an extra 50-70km on Wankel powered electricity.

It’s not entirely clear if the Wankel based QQ3 or any other Wankel based new energy car will come out of Chery’s R&D lab for sale in the near future, but we hope that they will as it appears to be a rather unique way of dealing with range anxiety that many potential pure electric car owners are currently facing.